Have you ever thought about writing a book on a topic you are passionate about? If someone did ask you to write a book, what would you say? What emotions would you have? If we were to guess, your initial reaction would be some combination of ecstatic and terrified. You would probably feel honored, and then apprehensive about developing enough content to fill a book that is anywhere between 200 and 300 pages. That was the reaction we had last year when we started down this path.

Now we are dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s on our book, “Digital Marketing Analytics: Making Sense of Consumer Data in a Digital World.” Taking several years of client work experience and thought leadership, and putting it together into a format that would be valuable for people was a great challenge. Analytics is a subject that some are comfortable with, but many find it daunting. We spent a considerable amount of time trying to balance those two elements. What came out of the process (we think) is a book that works for people of all levels of analytics experience. What will you see in the book?

Basic analytics concepts – In an attempt to get everyone on the same playing field before talking about more advanced concepts we wanted to provide you with basic definitions and concepts. If you’re familiar with analytics you may know these, but it is worth checking out in the event that the way we describe them offers you something new.

Tools – If you are familiar with digital analytics at all, you know there are a number of tools available on the market. In the book we talk about everything from social media listening tools to content analytics tools

Digital data use cases – If you are currently working for a brand, or even an agency representing a brand, you will definitely want to read our digital data use cases. It is the practical application of the concepts and tools we discuss in the first two sections.

Measurement best practices – While we spend the majority of our time focused on digital analytics concepts that aren’t measurement oriented, we do cover it briefly in the book. You will understand how to conduct research, how to put together a best practice scorecard and then how to report it to your management team.

“What’s next” – The last section of the book is on everything else. Basically, the “what’s next” for digital analytics. This section covers everything from mobile analytics to social CRM to search.

We just boiled down over 300 pages into 5 bullets, which means we left almost all of the detail out. If you are interested in analytics, or need to learn more for your job, we would highly encourage that you pick it up.

Oh, we almost forgot… What is the purpose of this site? There are three main goals:

Blogging about digital marketing, digital analytics and social media – We both have been almost non-existent bloggers for too long, and this site will change that. We will be talking about trends in social media marketing, digital analytics concepts and broader marketing trends.

Promoting the book – Some of our posts will be teasers of content that is contained within the book, but don’t come to the blog expecting us to give all of the content away. We wont be doing that. We will, however, be talking about similar ideas contained in the book. We will also be sharing presentations that we give during webinars and conferences in the spirit of sharing our ideas.

Promoting our favorite charities – If you are not already familiar, we are donating the proceeds of the book to our favorite charities. Chuck is donating his proceeds to Superhero Kids, an organization dedicated to addressing quality of life issues for children and their families battling cancer and blood disorders at the Children’s Blood and Cancer Center of Central Texas. Ken is donating his proceeds to RSDSA, the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association, an organization that is dedicated to supporting research into the cause of and cure for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). CRPS is a neurological disorder that causes severe pain and discomfort for the patient.

This has been an incredible process for us, and one we can safely say is one of the most rewarding of our careers. If you have purchased the book already, thank you! If you are planning to purchase it, thank you! If you are planning to share that the book exists, thank you! If you’ll only ever come here and read this blog, thank you! We appreciate your support of the charities and us. Looking forward to sharing the journey with you!